


Road Trip

by sunflower1343



Category: Finder no Hyouteki | Finder Series
Genre: Crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-28
Updated: 2014-08-28
Packaged: 2018-02-15 02:25:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2212260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunflower1343/pseuds/sunflower1343
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Asami is bored. His employees are terrified. The only thing they can do is sacrifice Takaba.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Road Trip

**Author's Note:**

> More from my crack period haha. Written June, 2005. This was before we knew about Kirishima, so Asami has a female secretary I made up.

The footsteps in the hallway were quieter than usual. Loud talk and laughter were taken outside. Desks were kept clean of all work. Departments ran drills on their employees. Down in the parking garage, a few senior employees gathered.

Security was whining. “He’s going to start holding firearms drills, I know it. Do you remember the last time that happened? I had to replace six of my staff.”

Housekeeping nodded. “And the blood was soaked into the soundproofing. We couldn’t get it out and had to replace it. Which we did quietly and at our own expense.”

Finance butted in. “At least you don’t have him looking over your shoulder ten times a day, asking for new reports so he can look for irregularities.”

The Executive Secretary waved her hands, quieting them. “I think we’re all agreed. This calls for drastic measures. We’re going to have to sacrifice Takaba-kun.”

 

**

 

Asami was bored. Not just ‘rainy day, I wanted to go outside’ bored. But ‘been there, done all of it, threw the pictures out’ bored. The same old takeovers. The same old petty smugglers trying to outwit him. The same old politicians needing to be blackmailed and bribed.

Where were the challenges? He wouldn’t have tried so hard to get to the top if he’d known how boring it was. He spun around in his chair, looking out of the large plate glass window behind his desk, eyes searching for something different, anything interesting, and finding nothing. 

Maybe it was time for some firearms drills.

His secretary walked in, interrupting his thoughts. “Asami –sama, I think you may want to see this report on Takaba-kun.”

His ears pricked up. Takaba. Now there was a challenge. His heart started speeding up at the thought of a battle with the boy. For the first time that week he had something to look forward to.

 

**

 

Four hours. Fourteen miles. That’s how long Takaba had been running. Not because he wanted to improve his health. Not because anything was chasing him. But because his editor was pissed at him and told him he had to do a pictorial on senior citizens. Who ran in marathons. 

The older people were giving him disgusted glances as he tried to keep up with them. Every so often one would pinch him in an effort to make him go faster. An 83 year old great, great grandmother finally fell back beside him and patted his shoulder. “Takaba-kun, it was a valiant effort on your part, but if we want to stay at the top of our game we’re going to have to pick up the pace for the next twelve miles. Why don’t you stop and rest here and we’ll pick you up on the way back?” 

They waved and ran off, leaving him collapsing in a puddle of sweat. He dragged himself to a nearby bench and fell over onto it. He didn’t notice the man until he was being shaken awake.

“Please, you’re him, aren’t you? You have to help me!” The man glanced furtively around.

Takaba raised his head and blinked against the sunlight. “Huh? Wha?”

“You’re Takaba Akihito, right? I need to get this data to a government agent named Ohira down in Nagasaki. But they’re onto me. Take it please. Go to the address on the label. I know you can do it. I’ve seen the crime stories you’ve done. You never give up. Please, here’s money, leave from here, go. It’s vitally important to national security.”

The guy grabbed him by the shirt and shoved him towards the street. “There, there’s a taxi, take it to the airport and go!”

Takaba found himself inside the cab, the stranger giving directions to the cabbie. Then he looked around and scurried off and the cab pulled away, going faster than it should. “Wait a minute! Hold on! Don’t take me to the airport. Take me home.”

The cabbie looked at him in the mirror. “Don’t worry son, I’ll get you there.”

Takaba sat back and sighed, looking at the disk. What the hell was on it that got the other guy so worked up? His laptop was at home so he’d have to wait until he got there for answers.

He looked up and glanced out the window. “Hey! Where are you going? This isn’t the way to the airport _or_ my apartment!”

The cab driver nodded. “Exactly. That's where they'd expect you to go. Your friend back there told me a little about where you had to go and why. I used to do covert missions in the army. You don’t want to go to the airport and leave a clear trail.”

 _I don’t want to go to the airport at all_ , Takaba thought.

“So I’ll drive you to Nagasaki. It’ll be much safer that way.”

Takaba looked at the scenery speeding by and decided he was safer in the car than trying to jump out. He shook his head. Could the day get any worse? He reached for his cell phone to call his boss, but when he patted his shorts it wasn’t there. Great. He must have dropped it. He put his hand to his forehead and massaged his temples. _Oh why the hell not? At least I can catch up on some sleep._ It looked like it would be a long ride, so he leaned his head back against the seat and promptly dozed off.

The cab driver smiled.

 

**

 

Asami looked at the surveillance photos. The man that Takaba was talking to had his back to the camera, but he saw what looked like a disk exchange hands. They were sly ones, using those old people to cover their tracks. He’d remember that.

He looked up at his Chief Financial Officer. “Are you sure that disk contains this information you’ve listed? If it falls into the hands of the police we’re in trouble. This has all the details of our international operations for the past 3 years. How the hell did they get this anyway?”

The CFO looked at the secretary, holding his breath. She looked at him. She stepped forward. “It was Liu Feilong, sir.” The CFO breathed again.

“Feilong? I thought he was back in Hong Kong finally. Can’t he ever give it a rest?”

The CFO jumped in. “Um, no sir. He’s evidently been working on his evil schemes for some time now, waiting in anticipation for the moment when he could topple your empire. Ow.”

Asami looked up and saw the man rubbing his ankle, the secretary looking annoyed. “That sounds exactly like something he would do,” Asami said. The CFO gave the secretary a smug look.

“Do we know where Takaba is headed with it?”

The secretary moved forward and laid a phone transcript on Asami’s desk. “From the looks of it, Asami-sama, he’s heading south. By car.”

“Car, hmm? He may be planning to stop anywhere along the way then. We don’t have any information on who he’s meeting up with?”

“No sir. If I might suggest, sir, we should have a couple of our best men follow him by car so we can catch him as he passes the data.”

Asami sat back and smirked with satisfaction. “Our best men? I’m our best man. Bring the Mercedes around. I’m going after him myself.”

“Yes sir,” the secretary said with a smile.

 

**

 

It was dark out when Takaba woke up. The car was parked by a small roadside restaurant. He saw the cabbie outside talking to someone in costume. He stepped out of the car and walked up. The cabbie grinned at him and winked.

“Good evening Sagara-san. I was just telling this gentleman about our plans to stop in Kobe for the night.”

Takaba almost rolled his eyes at the undercover stuff, but then he decided it might not be a bad idea, especially since the other guy looked strange. He picked a city out on the other side of Japan from Tokyo. “Yes, it’s been a long drive from, uh, Toyama. Can we get some food here?” 

“Yes,” said the cabbie. “I’ve taken the liberty of ordering for us. I was about to wake you up. It should be ready inside.”

“Great. I’m starved.” They went inside and ate, Takaba eating several people’s worth. The jogging had taken a lot out of him. He leaned over between bites and whispered, “What am I supposed to call you anyway?”

“Saitoh.”

Takaba did roll his eyes at that. “I guess you didn’t take “Subtle Disguises 101” when you were in covert ops, huh? That’s incredibly lame. Sagara and Saitoh.”

The cabbie seemed a little hurt.

“Oh fine! Whatever. Saitoh.” Takaba snorted. “I’m done here, so if you are too, we can go. We should really get moving, Saitoh-san. I hear Shishio’s on the loose.” He got up and giggled all the way to the car.

The cabbie pulled out his cell phone, made a short call, and pleased with what he heard, followed.

 

**

 

Asami’s men had gotten a tip that Takaba had stopped at the hole in the wall restaurant in front of him. Asami got out of the car and went in.

“I’m sorry sir, but we’re closing.”

Asami smiled coldly. “Of course you are. Permanently if you don’t answer my questions.”

For some reason, the owner believed him. “Please sit down. BRING FOOD! NOW!” he shouted to the back. He turned back to Asami and bowed. “How can I help you?”

Waitresses ran out with what looked like portions of their dinners slapped onto a plate, some mangled rice and curry and half a cheeseburger. Asami’s left eyebrow went up and he pushed it away. The waitresses looked hopeful that they’d get their dinners back.

“Earlier this evening a taxicab arrived here. You can’t have that happen often. I want to know if the young man who was riding in it spoke with anyone at length.”

“I don’t recall that happening.” The owner said worriedly.

“Excuse me, sir?” One of the waitresses spoke up. Asami looked towards her and she blushed. “Um, I was watching the young man, Sagara-san.” 

“Sagara-san? Are we talking about this young man?” He pulled out a photo and showed it to her. Unfortunately the only photos of Takaba he had in his wallet were from the first time they had sex in his office. The waitress' blush went to eleven. All that came out of her mouth was “Guh.” 

Asami snatched the picture back. “I don’t know what your problem is. You can’t even see the roll of film in this one. Is this Sagara?”

The waitress nodded.

“And did he meet with anyone?”

The waitress shook her head. That seemed to bring her to her senses. “But the cabbie spoke at length to a man I’ve never seen before. I remember him because he had red hair, one eye, and walked with a limp. He was disreputable. At least that’s what the parrot on his shoulder said.”

“Yes, that makes sense. Feilong would stoop just low enough to hire pirates. The boy is probably in danger and doesn’t even know it. You have been very helpful.” He stood up to leave.

The waitresses were relieved. They’d get their dinner back.

“Oh, and wrap that food up. Takaba is probably hungry.”

 

**

 

Dawn was breaking when they drove into Nagasaki. The government building they needed to go to didn’t open for a few hours yet, so they decided to get some breakfast at a shop across from it. They sat in window seats and watched as traffic picked up.

Suddenly Takaba sat up. “Hey, isn’t that the guy you were talking to last night at the restaurant? What’s he doing here?” Takaba jumped out of his seat and ran for the door. The cabbie swore and hurriedly pulled out his cell phone, shouting instructions into it as he chased after Takaba.

The pirate must have heard something, because he took off at a dead run down the street, the parrot flapping madly about his head. He crossed the street and headed into a park. Takaba dashed across the street, almost getting hit by a Mercedes. He flipped the driver off and kept chasing after the pirate, keeping his eyes on the parrot flying over the man’s head. 

The cabbie saw the near collision in the street and turned white. He grabbed a businessman’s newspaper and held it around his head as he ran past the car.

 

**

 

Asami made it to the city a couple hours after dawn. He wasn’t sure where Takaba would be going, so he decided to cruise the downtown district around the government offices, since that was the most obvious place for the boy to take such information. Suddenly a pirate ran across the street in front of his car. He edged his car forward, only to slam on the brakes again as Takaba dashed in front of him, then flipped him off and ran into the park after the pirate. He pulled off to the side of the street, almost hitting another man, this one running with a newspaper wrapped around his head.

Asami stopped and shook his head. He proceeded carefully into the park, following the newspaper pages.

 

**

 

Takaba ran like hell after the pirate but couldn’t catch up. _It’s probably a damned senior citizen_ , he thought. Then he had a stroke of luck. The pirate was heading for the central fountain and he tripped over one of the cobblestones surrounding it. He fell to the ground, the parrot squawking and madly beating the air with its wings.

With a flying leap, Takaba threw himself onto the pirate, but the parrot was a loyal one and began dive bombing Takaba. The cabbie ran up and pulled Takaba out from under the parrot’s barrage, and they both scrambled to safety on the other side of a park bench. Then Takaba saw the disk. It had fallen out of his pocket and lay on the ground near the pirate.

He looked at the cabbie. “I have to go get it.” 

The cabbie said “No you don’t. Don’t go near that damn bird. It’s a menace. It’ll attack anything that gets between it and what it wants.”

And as they glanced over the top of the bench at the parrot, it looked like what it wanted was the disk. It grabbed it in its talons and flew to the top of the fountain, where it sat happily chewing upon the plastic.

This was the scene a few minutes later as Asami walked up.

Takaba couldn’t believe his bad luck. First a pirate, then Asami. Could the day get any worse?

Asami pulled out his gun. “So that’s the disk everyone wants, I take it? That’s easy enough to take care of.” He aimed at the bird. The pirate shrieked “No!” and jumped for his gun arm, ready to take a bullet for the bird.

Asami looked disgusted. “Honestly Fujimoto-san. Haven’t you learned better than to do something like that after all the time you’ve worked for me? I could have shot you.”

The pirate’s mouth dropped open and shoulders slumped, then resignedly pulled the patch and the wig off to reveal that it was Asami’s secretary. Her head dropped in shame. “How long have you known?”

“From the beginning of course. Don’t you think I’d recognize my own Head Housekeeper from those photos of the park?” He started speaking more loudly. “And I can recognize my Chief Security Officer even with a newspaper wrapped around his head.”

The cabbie, no, the CSO, stood up next to Takaba and had the good taste to look ashamed. 

Takaba got up. “What the hell’s going on? You mean this was all a setup? What’s on the disk?”

Asami held his forearm out and the parrot flew down and settled on it. Even a parrot knows better than to fuck with Asami. Asami took the disk and tossed it to Takaba.

“It’s blank. It seems that my employees were getting nervous because I was bored. They were afraid I was going to take it out on them and make their lives miserable. They’re about to find out that they never really knew what miserable was.”

Asami turned to his secretary. “Your secretarial pool needs to learn to cook a decent meal. I'll be sending them to the Tokyo Cordon Blue academy for an eight week intensive training course.

Takaba whispered to the CSO, “Is that a punishment?”

The CSO looked puzzled, then a realization hit him and he appeared horrified.

"And in the meantime," Asami continued with a terrifying smile, "since you seem to have so much free time on your hands, you'll be handling all of their work."

Fujimoto paled, then bowed.

“And you, Saitoh—“

“Wait, that’s your real name?” Takaba asked in disbelief.

Saitoh nodded. Takaba swallowed a laugh.

“If you two are through....”

They glanced at Asami and sheepishly nodded.

“Saitoh-san, you’re demoted to guard duty for six months.”

The CSO looked relieved. He bowed. “Thank you for your generosity Asami-sama.”

Asami continued. “A group of senior citizens marathon runners has requested some protection while they train, and in the interest of good publicity I agreed. You’ll need to start running with them at 5:00 am every day, and they run for 26 miles.”

Saitoh’s eyes bugged out of his head.

“Each way.”

He started whimpering. 

Asami smiled sadistically. "I'll expect you both to be at your posts bright and early in the morning. You should probably leave now."

Fujimoto and Saitoh scurried out of the park before it could get any worse.

Takaba turned to Asami. “I’m sure glad you’re not mad at me.”

Asami turned a disgusted look upon him. “What makes you think I’m not mad? Of all the idiotic things to fall for. What if it had actually been Feilong? Or some other unscrupulous –”

“Pirate?” Takaba offered, laughing. “Come on Asami. The instincts didn’t kick in. And they were right weren’t they? Nothing happened. Except that you stopped being bored.”

Asami shrugged. “Yes, there’s that. I may even let those two off the hook after they’ve suffered a little. But now that the fun is over with I’m feeling bored again. Whatever will I do?” 

A familiar gleam appeared in his eyes, and Takaba found himself hanging upside down over his lover’s shoulder as Asami walked out of the park, still talking. “Since we’re here, why don’t we spend a few days relaxing? That was a rhetorical question by the way. I took the liberty of renting a house before I came down. We’ll go there now and break it in. Maybe we’ll even get out to see one or two sights before we go.” 

Takaba was going to argue but he didn’t see the point. After all, without Asami around he’d been getting bored too.

Asami’s voice faded as he walked to his car, boy on shoulder. Back at the fountain, the parrot swooped down and plucked the disk off the ground where the boy had dropped it, happily flying back to its owner now that it had reclaimed its prize.

 

~end~


End file.
